Professor Lemma W. Senbet has advice for his students: “I tell them to always do your best, wherever you are and whatever you are doing – you never know who could be watching. One thing leads to another and you may end up someplace very different from where you started. Situations are what you make of them.”

The Center for Financial Policy at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business opened a discussion on the bleak U.S. economic outlook and jobs market with a speech from Federal Reserve Board Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin, Sept. 26, 2011 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. The event was part of the center’s distinguished speaker series and drew government and business leaders, along with students and members of media to explore the timely topic.

College Park, Md. – November 5, 2009 — The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business launched the new Center for Financial Policy on Nov. 2 with a roundtable discussion on the hotly debated issue of “Executive Compensation—Practices and Reform.” The Center for Financial Policy offers an unbiased source of expertise on complex policy issues related to financial institutions, financial markets and public companies through cutting edge education and research.

The Smith School’s world-class faculty discuss their latest research on topics of broad interest and importance at the ThoughtLeadership@Smith Speaker Series. Each presentation is followed by an opportunity to network with alumni and regional business leaders at one of Smith’s convenient local campuses in Washington, D.C., or Baltimore, Md.

Smith School faculty have been actively involved in advising key players and proposing potential solutions to the finance crisis, briefing congressional staffers, members of the House and Senate Committee on Banking and the Committee on Government Oversight, and the federal Oversight and Government Reform Committee on issues from the collapse of Bear Stearns to the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

“This is the problem at hand, and it does need a solution,” said Sam Germaine, an associate at ETF Venture Funds who traveled from Philadelphia to attend the Robert H. Smith School of BusinessThoughtLeadership@Smith series event on Executive Compensation and Public Policy on September 18.

College Park, Md. – August 11, 2009 — The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business today announced finance industry leaders Clifford Rossi and William Longbrake have joined the school to lead the new Center for Financial Policy, which will be launched this fall. Rossi was named managing director of the center and Longbrake will serve as an executive-in-residence and senior policy advisor.

College Park, Md. – August 11, 2009 — The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business today announced finance industry leaders Clifford Rossi and William Longbrake have joined the school to lead the new Center for Financial Policy, which will be launched this fall. Rossi was named managing director of the center and Longbrake will serve as an executive-in-residence and senior policy advisor.

The Seventh Annual Maryland Finance Symposium, co-chaired by Lemma Senbet, William E. Mayer Chair Professor of Finance, and Vojislav Maksimovic, Dean's Chair Professor of Finance, provides a biennial forum for presentation and discussion of recent research by top scholars in the field. This year’s forum, held May 29-31, 2007, focused on Behavioral Finance and included papers discussing the limits of arbitrage, CEO overconfidence and myopia, herding and over/under-reaction in financial markets, trading behavior and volume, market timing and consumer finance.

Lemma Senbet, William E. Mayer Professor of Finance, was honored for his many years of service to the finance department, and the Smith School of Business, at a lavish dinner party at the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C., on October 5, 2006. The gala event was attended by about 90 people, including all the former chairs of the department, and a past dean of the University of Washington, who flew in specially for the event. Former Smith School Deans Rudy Lamone and Bill Mayer were also present to express their appreciation for Lemmas many contributions to the Smith School community.